Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Director: Jon Watts

Cast: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Zendaya

Have I Seen it Before: Absolutely.

Did I Like It: I think it’s pretty perfect.

And, no, that’s not just because Michael Keaton is actually in the movie.

It’s a little bit about that, but there are other things, too.

Let’s talk about basics. This film presents—or more accurately, continues from Captain America Civil War (2016)—the second cinematic reboot of the wall-crawler. As opposed to the tedious The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), this new version of the character justifies his existence by being existing in a world different than what we might normally expect from the character. 

Aunt May (Marisa Tomei) is not an old bitty (not that there is anything inherently wrong with being an old bitty). MJ (Zendaya) isn’t really MJ, and in fact there may not be a real MJ. Also, we may never have to see some teen beat cover boy react as a spider bites his hand. We’ve seen it. We don’t need to see it again. For that matter, what we don’t know what the hell Uncle Ben looks like in this iteration, and that’s refreshing, too. I want to say Bradley Whitford, but I just want to keep putting cast members of The West Wing in everything (the only thing that the Garfield series got right, by the way). Comic book purists might have cause to complain, but they really need to lighten up. Variety is the spice of life, or at least the spice of summer tentpole movies.

Beyond that, it works in its own rights, completely divorced from either the large Spider-Man mythos or the large MCU. It’s one of the more engaging teen comedies produced in the last several years. Tom Holland channels the best parts of Matthew Broderick and Michael J. Fox to makes a character that may not always seem like a reel teen, but certainly seems like a character from a real teen movie a la the era of John Hughes prime. The idea that Toomes (Keaton) is both Parker’s arch-nemesis and his girlfriend’s dad is the right layer of conflict for one of these movies. It’s an amazing twist that feels organic and surprising, even after having seen it a couple of times.

I really can’t gush about this film more. Like the original Iron Man (2008), it’s a revelation when I was only expecting a diversion. It’s outstanding that my review of the film has gone this long without mentioning one more performance by Downey Jr. While I’ve been in light mourning for Tony Stark, I’m reminded by this film that there is probably plenty of life in the Marvel movies yet. Even if Gwyneth Paltrow receives far more credit (in this instance only) than she may fully deserve.

On one more strange note: Is it weird that this film is in the running for best Captain America film, and the last Captain America film also has a competitive play for best Spider-Man movie? What a time to be alive and watching movies in the summer.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017)

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan, Kurt Russell

Have I Seen it Before: Sure. And I’m only 50% sure that’s a comment on how this film is very much More Of The Same in relation to the original Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).

Did I Like It: It’s good, but I’m surprised to report that it hasn’t stuck with me like some of the other films in the MCU.

And to add a statement like that doesn’t feel fair. I can’t fault the film in any way. The movie is generally amiable and funny throughout, and it manages to avoid the occasion Part II curse of Marvel movies and is happily content to not need to set up much for future films. 

As a matter of fact, there are several elements of the film that are candidates for the Greatest Of All Time. The opening credits are a big ball of crowd-pleasing joy. It possesses far and above the greatest Stan Lee cameo in any film ever. Peter Quill (Pratt) exclaiming “I’m going to make some weird shit!” is as fine a creative mission statement as we’re ever going to get on film. 

One might think that the reliance on Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) for much of the action and plot would be cloying, but I’m of a mind to believe the market research dictating that idea was right on that money. Anyone who insists they aren’t entertained by Groot is hiding something. Maybe they aren’t charmed by the toddler tree, but if that much is true, they probably have a couple of bodies buried in their backyard.

I also appreciate that Quill’s walkman actually sounds as crappy as a walkman ought to sound in the instant before Ego (Russell) destroys it, but only because it resolves one of my nitpicks from the original film.

As I type all of this I begin to realize that maybe on this viewing the movie will stick with me more. It deserves to.

Doctor Strange (2016)

Director: Scott Derrickson

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch*, Chiwetel Ejiofor**, Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelsen

Have I Seen it Before: Yes, but oddly enough I did not make it in the first weeks of its theatrical release. Between this and Ant-Man (2015), I’m not entirely sure why I wasn’t in much of a hurry on some of these latter phase 2/early phase 3 MCU movies.

Did I Like It: Yes, but I wonder if the movie is holding back.

I suppose I have something of a conception of why this film didn’t initially rise to the top of my agenda, and that’s because I had next to no knowledge of the character up until the MCU tried to bring it into the mainstream***.

And from what I’ve seen of the movie, it is that jamming into the mainstream that weakens the whole endeavor. People love Strange because his exploits are like an acid trip in 64 colors. Here, the film is loopy at times, but not “last ten minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and more just loopy enough to make sure the film can have a strong opening weekend. Amid the cascading dimensions, there’s an unrequited love story and a pretty basic superhero origin tale at the core. It’s fine, but it’s not terribly revelatory.

So the movie succeeds, as it’s objectively an enjoyable time spent at the movies, and doubly succeeds because it makes me want to steep myself in the greater mythology of the Sorcerer Supreme. I want to be a fan of Strange, I just wish Marvel hadn’t held back.

And maybe they won’t from here on in. 

*Joking about his name has become pretty passé by the time I write this, but I’m as certain as I can be without actually checking the footage that his one of the alternate names for Gerry Dorsey, and I’m reasonably sure that we hadn’t heard of the actor before that time. What is he hiding?

**Why my spellcheck was bent out of shape about “Chiwetel” and not “Ejiofor” is beyond me. Why it’s only bent out of shape the second time I typed the last name, I’ll never know.

***Which would be a big part of the reason that the casting of Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One. It is whitewashing, sure, and that’s not great, but it also frees a character from the constrains of gender, which is better than not good. Interesting at least that the film could both fail and succeed to embrace diversity. And it certainly isn’t the most whitewashed film to star Cumberbatch.

Captain America Civil War (2016)

Director: Joe and Anthony Russo

Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr.*, Scarlett Johannson, Sebastian Stan

Have I Seen it Before: Even after the somewhat lackluster impact of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and the incredibly frustrating Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) only months before, my appetite for superhero mega mashups had not abated.

Did I Like It: Yes…

But…

It’s worth trying to decide what the movie really is. Is it the trilogy capper of the tale of Steve Rogers (Evans) started in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). Or is it Avengers 2.5? 

I may be in the minority, but I still tend to think of it in the prior aspect. And in that respect, it largely succeeds. Cap’s idealism that was thoroughly quashed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) makes a comeback here, stronger but changed. The friendship between Cap and Bucky Barnes (Stan) comes full circle, and by the end Cap feels as if he has fully joined the world around him, even if that world has changed significantly since he first set out to find his place in it.

And yet, it’s hard to ignore the trappings of this kind of story. It’s a big, sprawling international stories. It brings characters from other franchises into the festivities. It introduces new heroes—and iconic ones, at that—into the Marvel universe. It is also a makeshift entry into the Avengers franchise.

Robert Downey Jr. brings his skills to full bear here, and it would have been iffy to not give him as much to do as this film does. Also really expensive. Tom Holland enters as a full-on delight, simultaneously channeling the essence of prime 80s-era Michael J. Fox and instantly erasing the memory of Andrew Garfield. Given the maddeningly little amount of time that we spend with Vision (Paul Bettany) and Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), it’s nice to see a little more of their awkward courtship.

So, it actually works as an Avengers film as well. I think I’ve decided that it can be both Cap film and Avengers movie, especially because it works as both. If one really needs a cohesive version of this film, it is most likely the greatest dramatization (certainly in the context of a big-budget fare) of somebody trying to introduce and assimilate their old friends to their new friends. It’s always awkward.

But ultimately, Captain America here solidifies his reputation as the secret weapon of the first three phases of the MCU. Iron Man was the face and the heart, but even he had to contend with the average quality of Iron Man 2 (2010) and the debatable quality of Iron Man 3** (2013). Thor never reached his potential until Thor Ragnarok (2017). Cap had three solid films, and each are in a particularized genre. World War II epic, mid-70s conspiracy thriller, and now 2010s Superhero event. There’s something to be said for that.

*It took me a solid minute to decide who to put in the top billing there. The film credits Evans first, and I opted to go that route, although an argument can be made in the other direction.

**For the record, I am solidly #teamironmanthree

Ant-Man (2015)

Director: Peyton Reed

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Douglas

Have I Seen it Before: Oddly enough, this is the only Marvel movie so far that I somehow missed at the theater, although I have since caught in on DVD.

Did I Like It: Ok. So, here’s the thing.

It is ultimately unfair to judge a film through the prism of what it was during pre-production or its earliest development. David Lynch’s Return of the Jedi. Tim Burton’s Batman Forever. Patty Jenkins’ Thor: The Dark World*. And at the same time, it is hard to watch the final result and not think about the potential abdicated.

So, too is it with this movie. Edgar Wright had been attached to direct throughout pre-production, but eventually dropped out of the project, citing creative differences with Marvel. The resulting film directed by Peyton Reed is at the disadvantage. One wants to imagine what the film could have been under Wright, and determine that any flaws (like the protracted training sequence that plays like a cut scene from a video game tutorial) are a result of the studio interference.

It’s a lively comedy when judged within its own context, with just enough a caper feel to it to differentiate it from the rest of the Marvel oeuvre. It is largely buoyed by the undeniably engaging presence of Rudd in the lead role, and remnants of Wright’s influence on the film (he retains an Executive Producer and writing credit). Which I think is one of the better realities about our sometimes over-produced blockbuster system. So much of the work is done in the pre-production that the resulting film can never fully pull away from a vision about which the studio might have had second thoughts.

*Although, to be fair, had any of those auteurs actually made the films in question, it is reasonable to assume that the world wouldn’t have been that dark, Jedi might not quite return, and Batman would be finite in the temporal sense.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Director: Tim Burton

Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall

Have I Seen it Before: Yes, in some weird haze that was 2008, I have a vague recollection of owning it on DVD, but then again I owned lots of stuff back then.

Did I Like It: It’s a difficult topic to approach. Burton’s output since the early 90s has been quite a bit off balance. For every Big Fish (2003) or Big Eyes (2014)* there have been an army of Dark Shadows (2012) and Alice in Wonderland (2010) to deal with. So I will go out on a limb and say that this is Burton’s best film since the turn of the century.

And yet, I don’t think I can say I would like it.

As to why, I think format may be working against Burton. He isn’t alone in making this mistake, but in the transfer from stage musical to musical film, some things get lost. The stage play is one of big booming melodrama, whereas here the proceedings are relegated to a tiny set and tinier frames. The big-budget musicals of yore like The Sound of Music (1965) traded in their bombast (or more appropriately, enhanced it) with a sweeping sense of the cinematic. Even an urban tale like West Side Story (1961) has more of a flourish than the dourness here.

The trappings of a movie hurt the story in more ways. Johnny Depp is (or, at least, was) a movie star, but he is not a singer, and the role of Todd really only has one job. Rickman—here stuck playing the thankless and truncated role of Judge Turpin—would have made a riveting Todd. Even Buffy The Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Stewart Head** would have been transfixing here. But alas, neither are leading men at the degree needed to deliver a decent opening weekend. So we are stuck with Depp, smack dab in the middle of his “I don’t need to be an actor, I just need a really interesting wig” phase.

I’m relatively sure that phase is still ongoing, but it’s not like we’re all chomping at the bit to see Depp in pictures anymore.

As I type those paragraphs, it’s become clear that I don’t really like the film at all.

*Note to self, between those two examples and Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Burton is to always be trusted with a film that has “big” in the title.

**Head in fact gets nothing more than a cameo. A baffling choice made all the more befuddling by the knowledge that a larger role for the actor must reside somewhere on a cutting room/hard drive.

What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Deep Space Nine (2018)

Director: Ira Steven Behr, David Zappone

Cast: Ira Steven Behr, Nana Visitor, Terry Farrell, Aron Eisenberg

Have I Seen it Before: I mean, I’ve seen the show before, if that’s what you (read: me) are asking…

Did I Like It: Yes. More than I thought I would, and I was looking forward to it quite a bit.

Rare that I express any particular thoughts about television in this space, but here we are.

I’ve been on a jag lately of taking in what I’ve euphemistically come to call showrunner porn. Porn may be a strong word. I probably mean something like Chicken Soup For The Showrunner’s Soul, if such a thing were to exist. Odd how the border between those two concepts is nebulous, but I digress. Whatever it is, I’ve been doing it, and as Deep Space Nine is one of the key influences to some of the work I’ve been doing now, a deep dive, honest look at the show was right up my alley.

I’m pleased to report that the film is more honest than most documentaries of a similar subject. 

It deals with the shows sometimes-maligned status as the middle-sibling of the franchise. It admits that adding Worf (Michael Dorn) into the proceedings in the middle of the show’s run was not the first idea of the staff, and added more than its share of ego bruising to the cast, while being careful to stress that those feelings were not Dorn’s fault. They even go into a fairly raw reopening of the cast shift before production of the final season began when Jadzia Dax (Farrell) was replaced with a new Dax, Ezri (Nicole de Boer).

It even admits where the show failed. While extolling the shoes social consciousness, Behr intercedes in the flow of the documentary (several people do this during the course of the film to great effect) to take points away from the show for never fully embracing an exploration of sexual identity. Also, a gag during the end credits about “the most important moment in the seven season run” that was not addressed during the film will incite belly laughs from fans of the show, and should not be spoiled here.

And the rest of the film is infused with this sense of fun, and that is often missing from similar showbiz documentaries. Some might find this tone off-putting, but if you were a fan of the show, you will enjoy the tone. I’m thinking that is kind of the point.

The biggest draw of the film is the experiment in which several of the shows writers re-unite to break—or outline—the premiere episode of a theoretical season 8. It’s interesting to see such fine craftsmen (and they are all white men, BTW, but that’s a discussion for another time) at play, but it is play. They even mention somewhere in the process that since they will never have to actually write the script—to say nothing of the twenty-five episodes that would follow in such a season—the pressure is off. It’s fine, but I would have much rather seen a fly-on-the-wall documentary about these writers actually breaking—and feeling under the pressure to break—the twists and turns of the actual show while they were making it. 

That would have been something truly special, just like the show. As it stands, it’s more like one of the Ferengi episodes. But then, again, I love the Ferengi episodes, too.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Director: Joss Whedon

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth

Have I Seen it Before: I’m having a hard time remembering the last time I wasn’t in a theater during the first weekend in May watching some kind of Marvel movie. I’m relatively sure it was 2001. Kids, ask your parents.

Did I like it: This has generally been considered one of the entries in the series that worked the least, and I can’t say I disagreed with that assessment at the time of release.

But here, with the Infinity Saga now complete, I wanted to believe that it had a Back to the Future Part II (1989) vibe, and would feel more satisfying when the setups that this film is filled with are more completely paid off.

And in some cases, it does work better. The vision Stark (Downey Jr.) has of the Chitauri’s return has much more resonance now that we have all seen the Endgame and where Stark would wind up.

In other cases, the movie isn’t working all that great. Thor’s sojourn into the cave doesn’t even really feel like a good set up for the beautiful confection that is Thor Ragnarok (2017), and most of the other characters visions at the hands of Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) don’t quite hit like one might hope. While the aforementioned Scarlett Witch and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) are interesting and watchable new characters, their introduction into the world will make a fuller exploration of the X-Men in this universe (now that Disney/Marvel has acquired 20th Century Fox and by extension, the entire Xavier brand) when that time comes.

Even the stuff that isn’t necessarily meant to set up other films fails to function completely. Nearly everything involving the Hulk (Ruffalo) and Black Widow (Johansson) never fails to connect. It’s a shame, as both actors have proved to be MVPs in other Marvel films. The less said about the sun down thing, the better. Future films were wise to drop those elements as quickly as they could.

But there are things that work by their own rights. James Spader as Robo-Alan Shore is a delight, and he deserves more credit. Vision (Paul Bettany) is a bizarre creation that gets better and better with every film in which he appears. Stark and Banner’s initial efforts to create Ultron (Spader) bring to mind the more thrilling creativity that Stark exhibited in the first Iron Man (2008). The party scene is low-key delightful. Robert Downey Jr., Robert Downey Jr., and finally Robert Downey Jr.

Ultimately, though, it is still a case of a film not quite successfully reaching for the ambitions it sets out for itself. It’s not an awful thing, but it can 

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Director: James Gunn

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Lee Pace

Have I Seen it Before: I’m not sure what insisted that I make it for the opening weekend of a movie featuring characters I had no prior awareness, but we all made it, and now Star-Lord and company are all a part of us… And many of us were not opposed to the idea of a (new) Howard the Duck movie as we thought we might have been beforehand.

The state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was probably more precarious in 2014 than Disney and Company. The movies had yet to flounder at the box office, and The Avengers (2012) was one of the big box-office money makers of all time. But, as could clearly be seen now through the lens of hindsight, the characters we had all come to love (or, more accurately, the actors playing them) might not be cost effective for the bean counters anymore.

And so, Marvel would have to start dipping deeper into the catalog. It was a gamble on Marvel’s part, but they could afford to gamble a bit at this point in their output. But they did it in a smart way. They did it just a little bit, and they made sure the movie they branched out in was actually pretty good. And they managed to stumble upon the reality that Chris Pratt was a verifiable movie star*.

And so the movie plays out like an approximation of what it would be like if Quentin Tarantino made a high-action space opera**. Gunn may not quite be the mast craftsman that Tarantino is, but the dish is made with the right ingredients, and presents a pretty enjoyable feast, all things considered.

On one directly critical note: is it weird that I think the biggest suspension of disbelief in this movie is that I’m supposed to somehow believe that a cassette mix tape has crystal-clear audio quality nearly thirty years after it was originally mixed? When played through a walkman that was just as old? That the tape ever played that well? In a movie filled with hollowed-out god heads, tree men, and the blind faith that a superhero movie with no known superheroes could ever hope to be any kind of hit, the music presentation probably shouldn’t bother me, and yet, there are moments when I can’t quite push it out of my mind.

*Although I’ll admit that I might be wrong in this assessment. The end titles call the shot that the Guardians will return. I mean, I suppose they might have been able to guess that even if the movie underperformed, they would play a vital role in the quickly forming Infinity Saga but man… Especially in a movie with the aforementioned Howard, they should have allowed for the possibility that this might not work out quite as well as they might have hoped.

**Which—to be fair—he still may do.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Director: Joe and Anthony Russo

Cast: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johannson, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan

Have I Seen it Before: I saw it when it was released…

Did I Like It: …and I liked it so much that it almost, almost made Disney’s Marvel’s ABC’s Joss Whedon’s Agents of Shield(s) in its lurching first season. 

Marvel’s Phase Two is experimental at its core. It doesn’t experiment with form, necessarily. Every Marvel movie is exploring already well-trod territory. They are more accurately experimenting with a sustainable model for continuing making these movies. Iron Man Three (2013) would be the one exception to this idea, as it was potentially (and now clearly) the last in a series, and they could therefore afford to make a Shane Black movie masquerading as the annual May superhero tentpole. 

Thor: The Dark World (2013) and this particular film try to adopt a television model, bringing in reliable small screen directors to see if their journeymen skills can be brought to bear on a cinematically larger scale. In the case of Thor, frequent cable director Alan Taylor, and the results—while thankfully not embarrassing—do add up to a certain blandness. Here, the idea really starts to sing, as they have brought in the Russo Brothers to liven things up. At first blush, its a potentially counterintuitive idea, as they cut their teeth on multi-camera sitcoms like Arrested Development, and Happy Endings. To make the link between that work and big action movies is too much of a leap.

Except, the Russo Brothers also cut their teeth on Community. They were making big-budget spectacle at twenty-two minute stints for several years. That show was great training for this canvas, and it shows. Especially when you realize that they are the only directors from Phase II to come back and direct any more Marvel movies, Joss Whedon included.

And so, this second outing for The First Avenger operates like the bleak mix of The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), that both Cap’s story and the Marvel series (this film coming fairly close to the middle of what will eventually come to be called the Infinity Saga) as a whole needs, bringing the whole thing into stark, yet, dark relief, and still acting as a pretty passable political thriller in the process.

As the film largely works, I feel I would be remiss in my role as a critic here without bringing up a few nitpicks:

~Why is the Captain America exhibit housed in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum? Like, the one time Cap notably took the helm of an aircraft, it didn’t exactly turn out so great for him. Why not the American History museum? I mean, that seems like a really easy fix.

~Shrimpy Steve Rogers—presented here in flashbacks—still doesn’t work beyond the scope of a better-than-average photoshop effort.

~I get that it serves some manner of an emotional through-line for Cap to go get his WWII uniform before the third act gets cooking, but am I honestly supposed to believe that in the middle of trying to hide from every government agency on the planet, he takes a break to enter a government facility to steal a museum piece from an exhibit that will pointedly, almost ridiculously be one of the first places the bad guys will look?

Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Director: Alan Taylor

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston

Have I Seen it Before: Tragically, it has been the most recent film I’ve seen at the drive-in. It is also the MCU movie I have probably re-watched the least.

Did I Like It: And there’s probably a reason that I haven’t watched it all that much.

I’ve always known this movie was at or near the bottom of many and my own personal rankings of the Marvel movies. I think it hits me in the opening few seconds. It’s not a moment like Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987) where something is truly, deeply wrong with the film and there is no chance of improvement. It is more banal than that. Odin (Anthony Hopkins) opens with a sweeping narration about what the Dark Elves are and why Malekith (Eccleston) has a beef with the Asgardians. Now, if you must open your big visual blockbuster with a VO—and I’m not entirely convinced this one does—you could do a lot worse than Hopkins. But, man, do I already want a nap after all that. The film is packed with this warmed-over fantasy banality that the film can never quite come together fully for me.

It is not completely without it’s charms. The pleasing qualities of the first Thor (2011) and what would become the bonkers fun of its successor Thor: Ragnarok (2017) are here, they’re just in highly rationed amounts. The tragically underused Heimdall (Idris Elba) gets a goodly action sequence or two to call his own, whereas he is appears content to just glower and watch for the rest of the series. The score—by MCU score secret weapon Brian Tyler—is actually one of the best of the whole series. Chris Evans’ cameo is quite a bit of fun.

It isn’t a bad movie, really and truly it is a testament to the MCU that they haven’t made an objectively (your mileage may vary) bad film. Nearly every other much shorter film series has a stinker. It’s just so pointedly obvious that everyone involved here—except for perhaps journeyman filmmaker Alan Taylor—is capable of so much more.

Now, that all having been said, if this review makes you put this film in the “non-essential” category, I don’t know if I would go that far, either. Missing The Dark World will make a large portion of the middle hour of Avengers: Endgame (and some truly enchanting expositioning from the freely wacky Thor) largely incomprehensible, and would rob that far more amvbitious film of some decent emotional beats. If that isn’t a recommendation (if a slightly damning one), then I don’t know what is.

Iron Man Three (2013)

Director: Shane Black

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pierce

Have I Seen it Before: Robert Downey Jr. in the role that made him a bonafide movie star? I mean, he’s probably going to be playing Tony Stark forever, so I don’t know why I felt compelled to see it on opening weekend, but there I was…

Ahem.

I may still be getting over some issues brought up by Avengers: Endgame (2019). Please, by all means, proceed with reading this review.

Did I Like It: Some people say it is the worst Marvel movie ever. In a world where Fantastic Four movies keep getting worse, I don’t know how that’s possible. Some more reasonable people want to say that this is the worse MCU film ever. They are still way, way wrong.

In my review of The Avengers (2012) I couldn’t help but note that the film—from a purely cinematic standpoint—is sort of pedestrian.

This film doesn’t have that problem. It is absolutely a Shane Black film in every way. That is a delicious thing to behold. It’s funny. It’s action packed. It’s more often than not surprising.

Is it fully an Iron Man movie, though? Some would say no, and hence their complaints. I say it is fully an Iron Man movie, with the knowledge that he spends less time in the suit here than he does in any other film that features him beyond a cameo (I’m looking in your direction The Incredible Hulk (2008)). This allows Downey the actor to play scenes more fully than he might in other films. It’s good. He’s a good actor, and we may have forgotten that while he’s been playing old shellhead.

There was a slight concern that Downey might walk away from the role after this picture was over. His contract had been fulfilled, and he was getting increasingly more expensive for Marvel. As such, there is an attempt at a happy ending for the character.

And then he signed another contract, and the story of Tony Stark continued. It leads to my one complaint about the film: The ending is counterfeit, and the one he does get is far more grim.

The Avengers (2012)

Director: Joss Whedon

Cast: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo

Have I Seen it Before: I was there opening weekend. It kind of feels like we were all required to show up for it.

Did I Like It: I also think we all tended to like it.

We now know The Avengers films are meant to be the biggest of big tenpole movies. The idea of the four-quadrant picture was created in hopes of movies like this. It’s not the place for an iconoclastic filmmaker to play with what it means to be a blockbuster. It’s more like the season finale of an extremely successful TV show. It takes a workmanlike temperament, and if you can get a large cast of main and supporting characters to mesh well together and each have their moments in the sun. 

Enter Joss Whedon.

He’s a good TV writer. It’s in his blood. He has ushered in rightful classics like Buffy, and done such memorable work on short-lived shows like Firefly, that they are somehow still remembered long after their untimely death.

But this film—only his second feature as a director after Serenity (2005)—is a big budgeted TV episode. It’s shot like one, with everything functionally but artlessly lit. Visually, it may very well be the least engaging of all the Marvel films. That can be a tough competition.

And yet the film works because all of Whedon’s skills are brought to bear. Iron Man (Downey, how could anyone else play the role) has shaken off any first sequel jitters and is back in fine form. Thor (Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) do their Thor and Loki thing. Hulk/Bruce Banner (Ruffalo) finally finds the right alchemy for the role and manages to be the most entertaining part of film, a feat Hulk has not measured up to until now. Even Captain America (Evans) manages to find a few wholesome quips that keep him Cap, and not some pale shadow of the funnier characters around him.

That these characters work together at all is a pleasing, giddy surprise, but it ultimately isn’t a memorable film in its own right. That’s okay. That wasn’t Whedon’s job. Thankfully, we could—at the time this film was released—still look forward to a slate of much more interesting, stranger films featuring all of these characters.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Director: Joe Johnston

Cast: Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell

Have I Seen it Before: With Johnston directing and his pedigree from the The Rocketeer (1991), this might have been the Marvel movie I was anticipating the most.

Did I Like It: For a long time, it remained one of the more mundane pictures. It didn’t live up to the jaunty humor of the Iron Man movies, nor did it have the breakneck pacing of the aforementioned Rocketeer, but upon this rewatch I’m realizing those comparisons are unfair. Cap isn’t supposed to have the same milieu as Iron Man. It’s why when they meet in Avengers movies of various sizes and shapes, their chemistry pops. Comparisons to previous Johnston pictures also doesn’t work, as this first outing with Steve Rogers (Evans) is more of a straight war picture, while Rocketeer is a pulp adventure that happens to involve nazis.

Also—not for nothing—I originally saw the The Rocketeer when I was seven, and the movies we see during our first decade may eschew any attempt at even honest comparative criticism.

This particular movie is kind of like the casting of Evans in the title role. On first blush, he’s sort of bland and too earnest for his own good, but there’s something impressive in that as well. If he can be entertaining without the jokes that a Downey, Pratt, Hemsworth, or others might bring to the proceedings, then that takes a lot more restraint than I might have originally granted him.

The rest of the casting works out pretty well for this movie. Tommy Lee Jones may be so perfectly cast that I’m not entirely sure he’s even acting anymore. This is a far cry from his turn in Batman Forever (1995), when he made a very competitive play for most miscast performance in a superhero movie. Dominic Cooper’s attempts to play a young Howard Stark effectively echoes 

And still, there are things that work far less than they did in the early days of its existence. There are far too many shots artlessly designed to take a advantage of 3D projection. As I write that sentence, I can’t honestly remember the last time I went to go see a film in 3D. I’m only vaguely certain that they still release films in this fashion, but they certainly stopped having Cap fling his shield straight into the camera. For that matter, the scenes before Steve Rogers great becoming just look like Chris Evans’ head photoshopped onto a shrimpy dude’s body. The teaser trailer for The Avengers (2012) is a weirdly dated poor substitute for the fun that Marvel is known for bringing in its tag scenes.

So, while parts of the film remain planted in the year in which it is made, I’m a convert with this film. It’s one of the greats, especially because it doesn’t feel the need to be the movie I think I want it to be.

Shazam! (2019)

Director: David F. Sandberg

Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer

Have I Seen it Before: This review is coming in a little late. Something about the DC films have left me in less than hurry to catch new entries. For the life of me, I can’t remember what that is.

Did I Like It: You know, it’s a funny thing.

Occasionally I like to escape for a matinee at the local second-rate theater. No, I did not mean second-run. That species has very suddenly become a thing of the past. The second-rate theater is the place that doesn’t have the amenities of the modern theater. No one will bring you cheese fries. There is not an IMAX screen or 3D projector in sight. There aren’t even stadium seats here, it’s that old. I realize that stadium seating in movie theaters is far from a new thing, but it still feels like a recent development, like when Monica and Chandler got together on Friends. Now that I think about it, both of those things happened at the same time.

I do not mean to disparage the essence of the second-rate theater. Especially during a matinee, no one bothers me. I am alone in a cold room—this, of course, before theaters got seat warmers—drinking a Pepsi and eating popcorn that is already doing a serious number on my stomach lining.

It is heaven.

Today, wasn’t so much that experience. I got to the screening a few minutes late. I hate to walk in on a movie that has already started, but I’m reasonably sure I might have missed all of the trailers, and only a minute of the actual movie. I’ll live with that. There were… children in the theater. At least two, but as many as three of them. And they were chatty as all hell. I don’t like that so much.

Every plot point—hell, every moment—in the movie elicited frantic, full throated questions. By the time the third act came around, the kids were screaming as if they were experiencing—not watching, mind you—Dave Bowman entering the monolith. How long has it been since I reacted to a movie like that? I’ll admit I shirk this responsibility more than most supposed adults, but I’m kinda required to keep my shit together in public.

I guess I just really like going to the movies.

Oh, you might want to know if this particular movie was any good. It was fine. Zachary Levi has been polishing his man-child comedic charm for years. It is brought to full realization here. The villain (Strong), whom I’ve already forgotten the name of, is a little bland, and it’s maybe twenty minutes too long.

But you wouldn’t have been able to tell the kid in my screening any of that.

Thor (2011)

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins

Have I Seen it Before: Less frequently than I had originally thought. Aside from Iron Man (2008) I really have not re-watched much of the Phase One MCU films.

Did I Like It: I think I liked it at the time of the premiere, but in light of far more entertaining uses of the character, I’m not sure it has aged as well as some of the other Phase One-ers.

This film is at odds with itself, or at least my reaction to it is at odds with itself. 

On one hand, it is a highly staged cgi-drowned tale of Kings and their realms. This is probably what caused the powers behind Marvel studios to think of Kenneth Branagh as the director, and what may have drawn the Shakespeare adapter-in-chief to the project. This is a fine, but quickly boring aesthetic on which to base a film. One need look to the more focused—and infinitely more forgettable—sequel, Thor: The Dark World (2013) for how far such stodgy staging will get you.

The other half of the film is even more baffling. Groaning under budget constraints at a time where a shared Marvel universe wasn’t necessarily a guaranteed way to print money, the rest of the film plays out in a nearly abandoned New Mexican town, with a few scant explosions, and one CGI robot thing. A far cry from the epic films we expect from the studio now. This is all to say that half of this film looks cheap. TV cheap. Like Agents of SHIELD during seasons when everyone stopped watching cheap. It’s such an odd relic of an era for these films that seems like it took place a million years ago.

But, the MCU—and more importantly Thor, Odinson continued—and there are charms in the film that allowed the experiment to continue. What it lacks in the traditional whiz-bang blockbuster magic, it more than makes up for in engaging performances. Chris Hemsworth threatened the world with his movie star charms in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009), and while the goofy comedian behind the manhunk doesn’t come into full bloom until Thor: Ragnarok (2017), we see pieces of the once and future Ghostbuster Secretary Kevin here. Similarly, Natalie Portman sheds the Padme Amidala of it all and—while it’s not exactly heavy lifting in the film—convincingly engages in a screen romance.

i suppose it says something about the Marvel movies that they are supremely watchable in their initial release, but seem quaint as the movies only improve. Imagine a world where Avengers: Endgame (2019) feels quaint. I’m already exhausted.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Rockwell

Have I Seen it Before: Sure.

Did I Like It: Yes… But at the same time, it is in fair competition for the worst MCU movie so far.

Just as the original Iron Man (2008) is a great example of the need for shared cinematic universes to start with a great movie first, and then build from here, its sequel is a pointed example of where Marvel has occasionally mis-stepped, and the Distinguished Competition has wallowed. Too much of the movie is devoted to setting up future films. Indeed, the strangely turgid scenes featuring Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) make them seem like their in a waiting room for their future appointments with Thor and Captain America. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) has the same problem. See Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016) and even the supposed culmination of all their efforts, Justice League (2017), or really any DC film that isn’t Wonder Woman (2017) or, maybe, Aquaman (2018) for other examples.

The film feels less vibrant than its predecessor in other ways as well. I feel a need to not speak ill of any appearance of Robert Downey Jr. as the character, as it turns out those appearances are a non-renewable resource, but he feels less funny, more shackled to a pedestrian script here. It’s the last time it will feel this way, and is only more apparent as he continued to inhabit the role. Gone, too, is the visceral creative quality. The sequence of Stark creating a new element (?) is both tacked on and not nearly as satisfying as Stark’s initial creation of the suits in the first film.

And yet there are watchable elements to the movie. The idea of Sam Rockwell as a pale shadow of the cool watchability of Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark is the film’s most fully realized idea, and Rockwell swings for the fences. It’s unfortunate that Justin Hammer couldn’t appear in other films, but it quickly becomes clear that Tony Stark is moving on to bigger and badder things.

It sounds like from the above that I am down on the film. It’s still insanely watchable. It’s just not their best effort.

Iron Man (2008)

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrance Howard

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, so many times. That first time feels like a million years ago. Then there are times when it feels like it was just yesterday. Sorry. I may still be working through some Avengers: Endgame (2019) feelings, as at the time of this writing, I only saw that film for the first time this weekend.

Did I Like It: Of course. The thing that Marvel did—and may have only lucked into—where DC’s larger universe has failed, is that they made a highly watchable first movie. 

Some people might say that Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger (Jeff Bridges) is a lackluster villain, and that the third act looks a lot like many of the other superhero films in the decade or so that preceded it. These are all valid concerns, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe proved from its infant days that a weak villain wouldn’t keep these movies down. This film converted verifiably great film actor Robert Downey Jr. to unassailable film star, Robert Downey Jr. Few people can pull off both. In fact, he might be the only one.

It’s also a fairly engaging story about the creative process. I’ve never created a mechanical suit of armor, but I have written a few books and engaged in other creative endeavors, so the process of suitmaking resonates with me. The Mark I is like a first draft. Lurching, awkward, and only if your lucky will it work in fits and starts. The Mark II is a good revision. All of the obvious problems have been fixed, but you only discover all new problems you hadn’t yet considered. By the time the suit is hotrod red and gold in its Mark III iteration, it has finally started to sing, much like later polishes. And yet, still you want to make refinements to your design. 

I want to be Tony Stark in my own way. Figuring things out. Always funny regardless of what’s going on. And now? Well, go read my Endgame review. But, as I’ll soon try to make the point in another venue, every story has to end, but there’s always charm in going back to the beginning and revisiting old friends.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Director: Joe and Anthony Russo

Cast: Robert Downey Jr. (why you got to do me like that?), Chris Evans (or as he shall forever be known, Creepy Uncle Steve), more Gwyneth Paltrow than I thought we were going to get, and Jake Johnson as Thor.

Have I Seen it Before: Opening weekend. Man I wish I had seen it months ago, but that’s a completely different question.

Did I Like It: As I’m typing this I’m a little emotionally compromised. For any number of reasons. I’m reasonably sure I liked it, but let’s find out together.

Well, we certainly have a new way station for any future games of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Come to think of it, after the additional name drop in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), I’m a little surprised we didn’t get an appearance by Mr. Footloose himself. Michelle Pfeiffer is in it. Tilda Swinton is in it. Rene Russo is in it. Robert fucking Redford is in the picture, and he said he stopped acting. I’m relatively sure that anyone with an active membership in the Screen Actor’s Guild (with the notable exception of Edward Norton and Terrance Howard) is in this film. It might single-handedly explain the recent dip in unemployment.

One might get the sense that as packed with characters as it is, this (final?) Avengers picture is the final realization of that famous scene improvised for Parks and Recreation by Patton Oswalt, but every minute feels earned, and successfully pays off ten years and twenty-two films previous set up. It’s 

Some of it’s time travel doesn’t quite pass the smell test, primarily when we are considering the ultimate fate of Captain America. Even if one were to sufficiently explain these apparent plot holes, how he managed to get the Soul Stone back to Vormir beggars all belief.

And then there’s the finality of it all. I’ve already dipped into a few minor spoilers above, but if you haven’t seen the film by the time you read this (and something about the early box office figures tell me you have), go see it. We’ll mourn our permanently fallen heroes later. Now, I kinda want to go back to the beginning with Iron Man (2008).

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Director: Peyton Reed

Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer

Have I Seen it Before: Yep.

Did I Like It: It’s the Marvel movies that are the least burdened by setting up Bigger And Better Things™ and instead content to be a movie. This could have been weighed down by the task of providing the missing link between the hopelessness of Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and what—at the time of this writing—is the hopeful rebound of Avengers: Endgame (2019. Instead whatever place-setting obligations the film has is largely relegated to the post-credits scenes where they belong.

Thus the film operates as a diverting extended comic chase sequence with plenty of sci-fi weirdness gobbledegook. It is about as perfect an example of counter-programing to the aforementioned Infinity War as one is likely to see.

And still, I wonder how the film and the series would be different if Edgar Wright had gotten to direct the movie he wanted to way back when.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. CGI de-aging is getting good. Scary good. Whereas Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan tried to take the 80s by storm in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), the technology seemed so pointedly stupid that I couldn’t fathom why filmmakers kept coming back to it. Now, I’ve traded in my request for a Batman Beyond film for a hope that Warner Bros. can just get their act together and give as the third Michael Keaton Batman film we all deserved. This film practically has a proof-of-concept for such a dream film in the performance of the hypnotic-at-any-age Michelle Pfeiffer. Hell, Pfeiffer could play 90s era Pfeiffer without CGI de-aging. But that statement may have more to do with my chronic 90s nostalgia madness. 

Oddly enough, it’s some of the scenes where Lang has to interact with a slightly larger world that—while funny—don’t work as brilliantly on the special effects side of things. Not all special effects are perfect, and even fewer advance along the quantum leaps (see what I did there?) of the CGI de-aging process.